Ken Tone

The early season home game against Leeds when we walked all over them and their arrogant, deeply unpleasant, fans started singing 'what the **** is going on?' is still a sweet memory.

The debate here is surely whether or not a cull will actually achieve a significant decrease in bovine TB? If that were universally accepted, I think nearly everyone would say go ahead. But there is no accepted fact here and indeed much (most?) of the scientific evidence suggests that a cull will not be effective. Some evidence even suggest it will make matters worse as it will cause movement of the remaining badger population into fresh areas .It is a political decision, not a scientific one.

From where do you get this idea that badgers are rare in Scotland? The only live ones I've ever seen were in Scotland! http://www.snh.org.uk/publications/on-line/wildlife/badgersanddevelopment/biology.asp DISTRIBUTION AND STATUS Britain is a stronghold of the Eurasian badger, which occurs from Ireland and Iberia in the west, through continental Europe and Asia, to Japan in the east. Although Scotland does not support the high densities of badgers that are to be found in the south-west of England, the species is quite common particularly in the lower-lying, more fertile parts of the country. While the Scottish badger population overall is probably stable, there are areas where badgers appear to be on the increase. There are no accurate figures for the total population in Scotland, but it has been estimated to be around 25,000.

Lol. Ah, "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things." (Douglas Adams this time!)

Beliefs in coalition that they didn't have in the Lib-Lab days? A pact to help a minority goverment for the short term would have been a far greater brake on Tory policies than this coalition has been, because every extreme policy would have been subject to review, but of course it wouldn't have given Clegg the trappings of power as deputy prime minister- nor perhaps lost his party 4 million votes?

What would you know? You're just a pleb!

What I felt the LibDems should have done was to help form an interim government for a short time not agree a formal coalition fixed for 5 years regardless. In other words, to do more like they did in the days of the Lib-Lab pact. Without the LibDem part of the coalition we would not have had a conservative government is the point. They did not have a majority.

(very much snipped) I've met quite a few government ministers and shadow ministers, including Clegg, in my job and of course nearly all of them come across as decent and interested. That's how they get elected! I'm afraid being in politics corrupts morally. They all end up making so many compromises and having to pretend they believe in stuff that they don't, that after a while they either get out because they can't take it --- or they go on to become very convincing liars!

Of course he only said that about being sceptical well after the event.. not at the time.

Well I speak as someone who was previously a fairly regular LibDem voter..... As far as I am concerned, Clegg sold the country, and his party, down the river for a 'mess of potage' in the form of a ministerial car and a bit of reflected glory as Cameron's lapdog. Has no credibility whatsoever. I cannot see me ever voting Lib Dem again whilst he is in charge --- if ever, in fact, because I don't see that many of the others who've enjoyed playing at being in government, at the cost of all principle, are much better.

Just realised that at least Dickens learnt from his time in Portsmouth..... It's no satisfaction to be done by two men instead of one. One's enough. A person who can't pay, gets another person who can't pay, to guarantee that he can pay - Mr Pancks, the rent collector, squeezes the residents of Bleeding Heart Yard in 'Little Dorrit'

Too busy trying to get my posts through on there! Only had 3 or 4 so far!

it wil be interesting to see how he tries to mend his relationship with chainrai after portpin take over. He has rather stuck his neck out lately. Will the News want to keep employing a reporter who is not allowed anywhere near the club?

It would be such a pity if they were then copied on to POL !

And for example that idiot Corp Ho (banker on POL) denied vehemently that Sol Cambell was being paid as much as £100k a week ,and it turned out he was actually on £120k. Why else would an England centre half sign for such a small club? But where was the worried noise from the pompey fans? As for the hero worship over Mandaric, when he was the one who reneged on his ground improvement promises and sold them for a fat profit to the first of the blindingly obviously dodgy owners, I just don't understand it. He is the one who is most to blame in many respects.

Same here. Evening games are difficult to get to in time after work for me at best, and it's the little things that tip the balance in deciding whether to go to a cup game -- in particular that my car park season ticket only covers league games, so i'd have to get down to Southampton earlier than usual to find somewhere to park etc. A bad piece of marketing that. If they'd charged me a few quid more for the car park, but included cup games, that would probably have tipped the balance in the apathy stakes.

It depends whether or not you remove your trousers first.

Ok, if you disagree with my interpretation, why do you think the media is focussing on the word 'pleb' more than the the swearing as such ?

But with office and rank comes the responsibility to be civil. When you were in the Navy, you surely would not have expected an admiral to call you a ****ing pleb and tell you to know your place , especially if his reason for doig so was because you were eg making his car stop at a security checkpoint at the entrance to a base ?

Well ...sort of yes, actually, though maybe not with those particular words because many consider them so offensive, and you are taking your point to the extreme. But had he said eg '****ing git' rather than '****ing pleb' and not made comments about how the policemam should 'know his place', then of course there would still have been a fuss, but it would have died down quicker than this. The media are making such a fuss becasue this they are taking this as an indication that top tories are out of touch with the ordinary people of the country -- middle class as well as working class.

Read what I said Wes. I didn't say anything about proof, conclusive or otherwise. I said 'implication'. Nor did I say anything about the police being lilywhite. You are still missing the point. I don't give a damn about the policeman being offended or not, and indeed nowhere has anyone said he was offended. The reason why the media are focussing on this is because of what his choice of insult says about the attitude of the chief whip of the tory party to ordinary people, not from his social background and class. It showed he considered himself to be superior to them. If you disagree with that, why do you think it is the word 'pleb' is that is in the news, not the swearing? And am I not entitled to refer to the UK as my country then?

My view .... he's given up on getting his £14 (18?) million back straight away. That was scuppered by the FL limitingthe amot of debt that can be carried forward. so he plans to carry forward as much as allowed ..£5 million.. which is more than he'd get from the trust for his claim on Fratton Park. He then is forced to turn the rest of his debt into equity, but ends up with the club ,the ground and still being owed £5 million. Since he is the main creditor apart from the football ones, and their debt can be covered by the remaining parachute money, it will only actually cost him about £500,000 net, to buy the club He then plans to get as much as he can from the situation, bleeding what is left of the corpse drier still, or if he can, ideally selling the club as such to the trust and renting the ground to them for c £ 1 million a year. This gives him a better return on his money than any interest from a bank etc, and he still has the £5 million debt, and FP. If it doesn't work, plan B if/when the club goes bust again, is to build on Fratton park, and get some money that way. He wouldn't make £18 million, but it is damage limitation for him. Whatever happens he is better off than just accepting £2.75 million from the trust.

Admirals do. HTH

Never .. move direct to Radio 4, or 4 Extra if you crave exciting variety in your life. (Let me know if you also want advice on where to buy the picnic blanket for covering your knees at matches.)

So 61 votes in the POL poll. Wow! And most of them apparently don't actually go to games. Best fans in the land.